Beware the Ides of March - Trump Thread #156

[Spandauer]

Do you think The Friend of Epstein is au fait with Roman history?

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5488504-name-a-better-trio-than-onion-garlic-ginger-trump-thread-155

I think that’s the key question, no one seems to know what the end game is and the US administration can’t seem to adequately explain. Congress got a classified briefing yesterday from Rubio and sense is they were left with more questions than answers.

The end goal appears to be
A) Trump making money in his offshore account from the Venezuelan oil profits he is syphoning off.
B) Distraction from the Epstein files

The effect this will have on the middle East, and/or the rest of the world hasn't entered the thinking of Trump and his sycophants band of fuckwits. That's why they have no answers to sensible questions around what comes next- they haven't thught that far ahead.

A line From casino (Mafia film)
All the bosses care about is the Dollars
Always the fucking Dollars.

I came on here to say more or less the same as you, in response to @MsJinks’s question. I am particularly enjoying “sycophantic bunch of fuckwits” as a description of Trump’s minions, @Littledrummergirls.

Trump is a total clown, My reading of the streams and from what those dastardly clever analysts have worked out, and a bit of my own reasoning is :

Because there was no planning, no expectation, that this was a spur of the moment last second whim thing where the clown said "go":

There is nobody for Iran to surrender to. No forces ready to step in to secure anything. And Iran is a bloody big place.

Ammo is low. Especially the Gulf States. The analysts have compared their military spending against cost and what they have fired and US industrial capacity/ output... and they can only defend against drones/missiles for a few more days. After that, practically defenseless. And it's important to note that the gulf states are defending the US bases. Trump had already used 40% of Thadd missiles in last years attack. Isreal has been sucking up all the Patriots the US can make. And Ukraine have been getting all the older missile systems which have to be replaced with new.

Trump has likely said his "4 weeks " thing, because the Generals told him at the start there is only 4 weeks of ammo stockpiled - for US forces. If they resupply allies, that 4 weeks drops dramatically. At calculated rate of use.

He has no budget from congress to pay for replenishment,

Iran has been preparing for this single thing for 50 years. If Trump does not get their stocks of missiles soon Iran can keep firing. I reckon Iran will have well hidden factories. In the mountains etc.

I am certain he is desperate for Diego Garcia so he can carpet bomb with B52 loaded with "dumb bombs". They have plenty of them compared to the smart and high tech stuff.

Other nations are watching and counting the Ammo too. TW are nervous. They have limited ammo. The plan was for them to defend for a few days till reinforcements arrive.

The US are using AI to identify targets. And that is terrifying. Using intel from a country closed for decades, is that a missile factory or a school ?

Iran has warned it's people. Any sign of trouble and it's an iron fist.

Not as good as AI sorry, but that's my take.

That's because he didn't wear a suit.

I reckon Iran hitting it's neighbors is not about lashing out. It's about using up their ammo and defences.

Iran knows its old tech can be taken down with modern stuff, so it is using its massive stocks to deplete the defenders ammo.

When Iran fired at likes of Cyprus, it's not to try to cause damage, it's to probe defences, So the allies divert defence systems.

It's a race I think. Can the US get the missile stocks before the missile defence ammo runs out. And I think Iran firing all over has totally caught Trump and his Generals out.

All not helped that trump and his cronies have effectively purged the US military and security agencies. He has Stalinised the US military.

Edit - I have too much time to think sorry.

NYT reporting last night that Khamenei's son is a likely successor, which would be more of the same. Apparently that's what the regime had wanted for a while but thought it would be too unpopular. Totally worth all those dead schoolgirls and all the damage. FFS.

That regime is like a Russian doll (matroyushka?) of supreme leaders.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/world/middleeast/iran-mojtaba-khamenei-successor.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QlA.0E8F.9VpZhP0437Jg&smid=url-share

As noted above, quite big, Iran.

If you are going to "take" it, then you need to pretty much decapitate it in a single strike. If you fail in that, then the defenders (because remember that what they are) will just spread themselves over that huge area and wait for the attackers to dare to enter.

We know this, because it is word for word what the UK strategy was in the (unlikely) event of an invasion.

Going by current reporting, that has failed. Therefore the enemies capability to continue the war remains.

The only way out from this is to stop bombing and declare it a bigly success.

Many of the kids of the top Iranians (and Afghans and Chinese and North Koreans) live work and study in the US and UK

will they really want to go back to their birth countries full time ?

Quite a lot of the Taliban top brass are were in Qatar. The leader actually sent his daughter to university there. Yes the sick irony

I can see them becoming hostages

I read this morning that the Khamenei family own 11 properties on Bishops Avenue!

Good day from Cyprus, where I am in an exceedingly bad mood (I blame Trump) and have but this to share, from Instagram:

Meanwhile the Friends of Epstein soldier on.

from NYT:
Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, agreed on Tuesday to sit for an interview with the House Oversight Committee about his relationship with the sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr. Lutnick, a billionaire businessman, lived next door to Mr. Epstein in New York. Until recently, he had claimed to have cut ties with Mr. Epstein in 2005, after he made a visit to the Manhattan townhouse where the authorities said Mr. Epstein engaged in sexual acts with underage girls.
But after Congress passed a law requiring the Justice Department to disclose its investigative material on Mr. Epstein, the department released documents showing that Mr. Lutnick and Mr. Epstein continued to communicate and socialize for years after Mr. Epstein had been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor. Mr. Lutnick later acknowledged in a Senate hearing that he had visited Mr. Epstein’s private island in 2012.

Excellent point. And given that many of these kids will be "connected", they might be stuck.

Epstein will still be waiting for Trump no matter how Iran goes.

He really is an idiot. If he thinks he is diverting he is wrong. He is actually giving folk time to pick through the files.

I think a bit like me with a bad tooth not going to the dentist. Put it off, too busy, too busy, it will go away or fall out. But it just gets infected and I end up with an abscess.

In his Temu situation room.

Given how many countries are now affected and/or actively engaged in the war that isn't a war, when does it become 'big enough' to be classed as a World War? And who decides to call it that? Not that it matters, I guess.

Did people call it WWII whilst it was actually happening?

Whilst I take the sentiment to my mind a world war as we imagine it would surely need to involve Russia and/or China?

I would suggest it’s more likely to be considered the 3rd Gulf war.

WW2 ? People still can't agree on it now.

If you want the "world" moniker to work, then the invasion of China in 1937 might be a starting point. Or Italys invasion of Abyssinia in 1931 ?

"1939" is just when Britain declared war. And rather Anglocentric.

Agree that the wws are a very Anglocentric view of the World!

I would not be surprised if a lot of Americans thought WW2 started in 1941 and was just the US.

Thanks for the info. As you might have guessed, I'm not well-versed in war history! Although from the recent and various threads on MN I am now much better informed overall.